What to Eat in the Dolomites: A Guide to Mountain Food for Hut-to-Hut Hikers

You come to the Dolomites for the mountains.

But somewhere between your first plate of canederli, a slice of warm apple strudel at 2,500 metres and dinner after a long day on the Alta Via, you realise something:

Food is part of the adventure.

Hut-to-hut hiking gives you a particularly good introduction to the cuisine of the Dolomites because every day ends somewhere different. And as you cross valleys, mountain groups and even provincial borders, what appears on the menu changes too.

One evening you might be eating Tyrolean-style dumplings in South Tyrol. A few days later, polenta dominates the menu. Around Cortina, you discover Ladin specialities such as beetroot-filled casunziei. Further south in Trentino, strangolapreti and local cheeses start appearing.

This isn't one single “Dolomites cuisine”. It is a fascinating meeting of Alpine, Tyrolean, Ladin, Trentino, Venetian and Italian food traditions, shaped by centuries of life in isolated mountain valleys.

And after six hours of hiking, it tastes even better.

1. Canederli – The Ultimate Rifugio Food

If you spend several days hiking through the Dolomites, chances are you'll meet the canederlo sooner rather than later.

Known as Knödel in German-speaking South Tyrol, these large bread dumplings are one of the great classics of Alpine cuisine.

A flavorful dish of traditional South Tyrolean dumplings, served atop a bed of fresh cabbage with cherry tomato wedges. The most delicious ones at Rifugio Resciesa during our Dolorama Trek!

Traditionally, stale bread was far too valuable to waste. Mixed with milk and eggs and combined with ingredients such as speck, cheese or herbs, yesterday's bread became a substantial meal perfectly suited to mountain life. Today you'll find endless variations: speck, cheese, spinach and beetroot are among the most common.

They may arrive floating in broth or served “dry” with melted butter and Parmesan.

Our tip: If a rifugio offers a tris di canederli, order it. You'll normally get several different flavours on one plate — perfect if you can't decide.

And yes, after a big mountain stage, eating three enormous bread dumplings for lunch suddenly seems completely reasonable.

2. Schlutzkrapfen – South Tyrol's Answer to Ravioli

Cross into South Tyrol and you'll soon encounter Schlutzkrapfen, often called mezzelune in Italian.

These half-moon-shaped pasta pockets are traditionally filled with spinach and ricotta and served with melted butter, Parmesan and chives. Other seasonal fillings also appear.

They are lighter than canederli but still substantial enough to feel like proper mountain food.

If you're hiking one of our itineraries through Puez-Odle, Fanes or the northern Dolomites, keep an eye out for them.

They are exactly the sort of dish that makes you wonder whether stopping for lunch was actually a better idea than trying to shave 20 minutes off your hiking time.

Another tasty dish are the traditional Schlutzkrapfen. These are from Rifugio Genova's Chef.

3. Casunziei – The Dish to Look for Around Cortina

As your Alta Via journey reaches the Cortina area, look for casunziei all'Ampezzana.

These crescent-shaped ravioli are one of Cortina's signature dishes. The classic Ampezzo version has a striking red beetroot filling and is traditionally finished with melted butter and poppy seeds.

The combination sounds unusual if you've never tried it: slightly sweet beetroot, fresh pasta, rich butter and the nuttiness of poppy seeds.

But it works.

And it also illustrates something important about Dolomites food: recipes that developed only a few valleys apart can be surprisingly different.

If you're hiking our Alta Via 1 North, Full Alta Via 1 or one of our Best of Alta Via 1 tours, this is one local dish worth looking for.

4. Polenta – The Further South You Go, the More You'll See It

At first glance, polenta doesn't look particularly exciting.

Then you eat it in a mountain hut after hiking all day.

Made from cornmeal and cooked slowly, polenta has been a staple of mountain cuisine for generations. It can accompany mushrooms, cheese, sausages, game, goulash or other slow-cooked meat dishes.

In Trentino, the relationship between polenta and local cheese is particularly strong. Different areas pair it with cheeses such as Puzzone di Moena, Vezzena or fresh Tosèla.

As you travel south through the Dolomites, particularly on itineraries such as the Palaronda Trek or Alta Via 2, you'll increasingly encounter this kind of hearty Trentino mountain cooking. However, in the total area of the Dolomites you can savour it: even in the Northern parts such as on Alta Via 1 or Dolorama Trail and even beyond.

It's warm, filling and exactly what mountain food is supposed to be.

The traditional polenta is here served with mushrooms and game - a particular delicacy at Rifugio Resciesa.

5. Strangolapreti – With Possibly the Best Name in the Dolomites

This one deserves a place on the list for the name alone.

Strangolapreti literally translates as something close to “priest stranglers.”

They're soft spinach-and-bread dumplings typical of Trentino, usually served with melted butter and sage.

And the name comes with a suitably colourful legend. One version tells of an exceptionally hungry priest who devoured the dumplings so greedily that he almost choked on them.

Whether the story is true is another matter.

But if you're hiking through Trentino and see strangolapreti on a rifugio menu, they're absolutely worth trying.

Just perhaps eat them more slowly than the priest did.

6. Barley Soup – Don't Underestimate the Soup

Zuppa d'orzo, or Gerstensuppe, doesn't photograph as well as a plate of pasta.

But on a cold or rainy mountain day, you may decide it's one of the greatest inventions in Alpine history.

Barley is slowly cooked with vegetables, potatoes and often speck or smoked meat, creating a thick and filling soup. Variations of barley soup are found throughout the Dolomites and reflect the simple, practical cooking of mountain communities.

Add a piece of rye bread and you have a surprisingly substantial lunch.

This is also one of those dishes where the setting matters.

Eat it at home and it's soup.

Eat it inside a warm rifugio while rain hits the windows and your wet jacket hangs by the door, and it's something else entirely.

Sitting in a warm rifugio restaurant like at Rifugio Re Alberto, when it is cold or rainy outside, having a warming barley soup and relaxing after your hike on King Laurin Alta Via - what else could you wish for?

7. Speck – More Than Something on a Breakfast Buffet

South Tyrolean Speck is cured and lightly smoked pork, and you'll encounter it everywhere from breakfast tables to dumplings.

But one of the nicest ways to enjoy it is also the simplest.

A traditional Marende or Brettljause combines speck with local cheese, bread, pickles and other simple accompaniments.

It's less a recipe than a mountain snack.

And that makes it perfect for hikers.

If you're passing a malga or rifugio in the afternoon and aren't ready for a full meal, a board of speck and cheese shared on the terrace is difficult to beat.

A rustic wooden board is elegantly arranged with thin slices of cured Speck, accompanied by a small bowl of creamy spread, fresh herbs, pickles, and vibrant red lettuce. That's how a Speck dish can be savoured at Rifugio Molignon on our King Laurin Alta Via.

8. Pastìn – When Your Alta Via Reaches Belluno

Keep heading south and the food changes again.

In the Belluno and Cadore areas, look for pastìn — a strongly seasoned mixture traditionally made from minced pork or pork and beef.

It is cooked rather than eaten raw and often served grilled with polenta. The seasoning varies, but garlic, pepper and other spices give it a distinctive flavour.

This is proper rustic food from the southern Dolomites and exactly the kind of speciality you may never encounter if you only visit the famous northern valleys.

That's one of the things we love about walking a complete Alta Via rather than staying in one resort.

You're not just crossing the mountains.

You're crossing culinary regions.

9. Tirtlan and Turtres – The Crispy Ones

If you see something resembling a fried pastry stuffed with spinach and ricotta, don't walk past it.

Depending on where you are, you'll encounter names such as Tirtlan or turtres.

Thin dough surrounds fillings such as spinach and quark/ricotta before being fried until crisp on the outside and soft inside.

These dishes come from the farming traditions of the region and are a good reminder that much of today's celebrated mountain cuisine originated as practical food made from whatever families could produce locally.

Not everything in the Dolomites needs to be pasta.

Sometimes it should be fried.

10. Kaiserschmarrn – Dessert or Lunch? Yes.

Here is where restraint becomes difficult.

Kaiserschmarrn is a thick, fluffy pancake torn into pieces, dusted generously with icing sugar and usually served with fruit compote or jam.

Calling it “pancakes” doesn't really do it justice.

It's somewhere between dessert, comfort food and a completely legitimate mountain lunch.

Dolomites huts commonly serve it as either a sweet dish or a meal in its own right.

Our preferred strategy?

Order one for the table and announce that everyone will share it.

Then quietly eat most of it yourself.

Kaiserschmarren at Rifugio Pisciadu.

11. Apple Strudel – The Mandatory Rifugio Stop

You knew this one was coming.

Apple strudel is found throughout the Dolomites, and almost every hut seems to have its own version.

Apples, cinnamon and raisins are wrapped in pastry and baked, then usually served warm with icing sugar. Depending on where you stop, it may arrive with whipped cream, vanilla sauce or ice cream.

The important question isn't whether you should eat strudel.

It's when.

We suggest around 3 PM, ideally on a rifugio terrace, with another hour or two of hiking still ahead.

Coffee optional.

Second slice negotiable.

The classic Apple Strudel with a Coffee Macchiato - a true mix of Italian and Austrian culinary cultures in the Dolomites. This one was served at Rifugio Resciesa during our Dolorama Trail.

12. And Then There Are the Cheeses

This deserves more attention than it usually gets.

The Dolomites are still a landscape of malghe, alpine pastures and dairy farming, and cheese changes significantly from valley to valley.

In Trentino you may encounter the famously aromatic Puzzone di Moena, Vezzena or fresh Tosèla.

Elsewhere you'll find cheeses produced by individual farms or alpine dairies that may never travel very far beyond the valley where they're made.

If a rifugio menu tells you where its cheese comes from, pay attention.

That is often the most interesting thing on the menu.

The Rifugio Dinner: What Should You Expect?

If you're travelling with Self Guided Dolomites, many of your overnight stays include half board, meaning breakfast and dinner are provided at the rifugio.

Don't expect a restaurant menu with 40 choices.

And that's part of the experience.

A typical rifugio dinner may consist of a first course such as soup, pasta or dumplings, followed by a main course and dessert. Exactly what you receive varies enormously between huts.

Some rifugios still serve wonderfully simple traditional mountain food.

Others have become surprisingly sophisticated.

The wider Dolomites region now combines hundreds of mountain huts with an increasingly ambitious food culture, ranging from traditional dishes to modern interpretations using regional ingredients.

After a long hiking day, both approaches have their appeal.

Although Rifugios might have a restricted selection of dishes, the cozy atmosphere in the restaurant, be it at night or in the morning, belongs to the special moments of your hike. Here we are at Rifugio Rosetta on our Palaronda Trek.

Vegetarian in the Dolomites? Usually Easier Than You Think

Traditional mountain cuisine contains plenty of meat, especially speck, sausages and game.

But many of its most famous dishes are naturally vegetarian or easily prepared that way: cheese or spinach canederli, Schlutzkrapfen, polenta with cheese or mushrooms, strangolapreti, Spätzle and many soups are obvious examples.

Vegan dining requires more planning.

Traditional rifugio cooking relies heavily on butter, cheese, milk and eggs, and remote huts naturally have less flexibility than restaurants in the valley.

If you have dietary requirements, communicate them well before your trip, rather than arriving at a remote rifugio at 7 PM and hoping the kitchen can improvise.

Don't Expect the Same Food Everywhere

Perhaps this is the most important thing to understand.

The Dolomites aren't one homogeneous destination.

On the Alta Via 1, you can travel from South Tyrol through the Ladin heart of the mountains and eventually into Belluno.

On the Alta Via 2, your journey crosses an even greater variety of landscapes and culinary traditions.

On our Rosengarten, Sella and Alpe di Siusi itineraries, South Tyrolean and Ladin influences are particularly strong.

On the Palaronda, you're firmly in Trentino.

And that's why we wouldn't recommend spending your entire trip ordering the same plate of pasta.

Look at the menu.

Ask what is local.

Try something you don't recognise.

The Best Meal Might Not Be Dinner

One of our favourite parts of hut-to-hut hiking is stopping somewhere that isn't your overnight hut.

You have breakfast at one rifugio.

Coffee at another.

Lunch at a malga.

Strudel somewhere halfway up a climb.

And dinner at an entirely different hut.

Suddenly, food becomes part of the geography of your hike.

You start remembering places not just because of the view, but because “that's where we had those amazing canederli” or “that's the hut with the ridiculous Kaiserschmarrn.”

Those memories become part of the journey.

Who wouldn't remember a breakfast with such a morning view on the Dolomites peaks? This is at Rifugio Molignon on Alpe di Siusi.

Hike Hungry

We spend a lot of time talking about distances, elevation profiles, weather, equipment and mountain huts when planning a hut-to-hut adventure.

All of those things matter.

But the Dolomites aren't something you experience only through your hiking boots.

They're also found in a bowl of barley soup on a cold afternoon, homemade pasta after a long climb, local cheese from a mountain pasture and warm strudel eaten while looking back at the trail you've just walked.

So when you join one of our Self Guided Dolomites hut-to-hut adventures, our advice is simple:

Hike curious. Eat local. And always leave a little room for strudel.